Will Be Designated Driver
The Will Be Designated Driver program offers a low cost solution to driving while impaired, especially in areas where there is little public trasnportation.
About You
About You
About Your Organization
Organization Name
Will Be Designated Driver, Inc.
Organization Website
Organization Country
United States
Country where this project is creating social impact
United States
Is your organization a
Non‐profit/NGO/citizen sector organization
How long has your organization been operating?
Less than a year
Has the organization received awards or honors? Please tell us about them
References - Please provide two references with a two-sentence biography, email address, and phone number for each
Allen Porter, Fiscal Sponsor, DrinkingandDriving.org – 888-502-3236 – No email available
Mr. Porter is the owner of Drinkinganddriving.org, a website provided to the public as a resource for contact information of designated drivers across the United States. The website focuses on teaching and inspiring drunk driving prevention to drivers of all ages, especially young drivers across the nation. They produce and provide free educational materials and real tools to prevent drunk driving.
Ed Schmidt, Corporate Trainer – 301-399-3764 – No email available
Ed Schmidt started his real estate career in 1986 as a sales associate, becoming the office manager for a local real estate company in 1991. In 1999, Ed began his own company, growing it to 350 agents in five years. He has served on several committees, including a local Board of Realtors as President, Chaired MLS, Chaired Professional Standards Committees and is one of only a few people in the history of NAR to be chosen as a local board “Realtor of the Year” three times.
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Innovation
Select the stage that best applies to your solution
Growth (your pilot is up and running, and starting to expand)
How long have you been in operation?
Operating for less than a year
The Need: What problem are you trying to solve?
Our program is addressing the health and financial impact an impaired driver crash has on our medical community, the family unit and the potential for long-term healthcare costs related to injuries sustained in an impaired driver crash.
The Solution: What is your solution? Be specific!
Our solution is to offer free or reduced cost public transportation that will address the “buzzed” drinker and the “hard-core” drinker. Our program allows responsible drinkers to arrange for transportation to and from establishments and events in advance to avoid injury or death to others, or to avoid potentially expensive DUI offenses. The program also addresses the hard-core drinker as servers can contact the agency, request a driver, who will take the patron home. If necessary, a second driver is dispatched to drive home the person’s vehicle. If the patron chooses not to pay for the service, or is unable to pay, the service is provided free of charge. The program is being targeted specifically for areas where public transportation and taxi services are not available or are priced out of the range of many individuals.
The Model: Walk us through a specific example of how your solution makes a difference; include your primary activities
Will Be Designated Driver, Inc. provides transportation at the cost of $2 per mile, either as an advanced arrangement or at the request of servers or other patrons who recognize a customer who has had too much to drink and should not drive home. For an additional, $2 per mile, a second driver can be dispatched in order to bring the inebriated driver’s car home as well. In cases where the impaired driver, refuses or is unable to pay, the transportation is provided free of charge.
To address the incidence of teenage deaths due to drinking and driving, the program offers parents the ability to purchase memberships that allow their teen to be picked up from any location and delivered home safely. In the case where a teen who is not licensed is riding with another teen who begins drinking, the teen is able to use the toll free number and arrange a ride home safely. This is a benefit for teens who are not comfortable contacting parents, or whose parents may have chosen to enjoy adult beverages in the comfort of their home and are unable to drive to pick up the teen.
The Marketplace: Who are your peers and competitors? Identify others also working to address the needs you are and what differentiates you from them. What challenges could these players pose to your success or growth?
Taxi services, limousines, and public buses/transit are the only competition to this program. It is specifically designed for areas where public transportation is limited. In areas where public transportation exists, the program may still not be affected as it can be provided for free, where buses, trains and taxi services require payment in order to provide transportation.
This Entry is about (Issues)
Social Impact
Founding Story: We want to hear about your "Aha!" moment. Share the story of where and when the founder(s) saw this solution's potential to change the world.
The founders of the program, Seanna Smallwood and Jim Will, own a driver interlock installation company. A persona incident inspired Seanna to find a way to provide low-cost transportation alternatives for those who were impaired, or who were responsible enough to plan for an evening of drinking.
Terry Rogers, the National Program Director for the program, lost her 19-year old stepson in a drunk driving crash, one that also took the life of his mother and severely injured his fiancé. Terry worked with Mothers Against Drunk Drivers for a few years, but became disillusioned when she learned that the organization refused to accept donations from the alcohol industry, or to work with them in any form. Over the next 10 years, Terry sought a way to honor her stepson and his mother’s memory with a drunk driving prevention program that would work with the alcohol industry and provide alternatives to driving while impaired that actually worked.
Please describe the goal of your initiative; outline what you are trying to achieve
The goal of the program is to:
- Create and fund 20 new chapters across the United States
- Remove over 17,000 alcohol-impaired drivers from roadways across the US
- Provide police departments, as well as national, state and local governments data regarding the reduction in alcohol related crashes and multiple statistics regarding drunk driving.
What has been the impact of your solution to date?
The program has been in operation only eight months and has successfully removed more than 500 impaired drivers from roads where the program is operational. Because these numbers grow daily, the impact is significant.
What is your projected impact over the next five years?
Along with the increased number of alcohol-impaired drivers removed from roadways, the program hopes to document a reduction in drunk driving crashes and arrests, reduced injuries from drinking and driving and hopes to have the program implemented statewide throughout the United States. In addition, the program would like to expand to other countries, providing assistance and guidance for them to develop their own non-profit designated driver program.
Winning entries present a strong plan for how they will achieve and track growth. Identify your six-month milestone for growing your impact
By July, 2012, Will Be Designated Driver, Inc. will have opened 10 new chapters throughout the United States.
Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your six-month milestone
Task 1
Obtain funding for each chapter of between $20,000 and $30,000 for chapter launch
Task 2
Develop a viable solution to insurance regulations and compliance with DOT regulations for chapters who must cross state lines
Task 3
Hire chapter leaders, administrative personnel and drivers
Now think bigger! Identify your 12-month impact milestone
By February, 2013, the program will be operational in 20 states and have locked in a reliable funding source.
Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your 12-month milestone
Task 1
Obtain funding of between $1 and $5 million
Task 2
Create national, state and chapter level positions to address all areas of the company, including grant writing, fund-raising
Task 3
Refine software so that reports can be provided to government agencies regarding drinking and driving statistics, program imp
Sustainability
Tell us about your partnerships
Will Be Designated Driver Inc. has partnered with Drinkinganddriving.org in an effort to pool resources and offer a higher quality of service than the two groups could offer alone.
Will Be Designated Driver Inc. has also partnered with Phelan Web Development for a proprietary iPhone and Google iPhone applications using web crawler software designed by Phelan Web. This program will provide statistics never before available on driver impairment, the effect of public transportation on impaired driving and injuries sustained during drunk driving crashes.
Are you currently targeting other specific populations, locations, or markets for your innovation? If so, where and why?
Requests have been received to start chapters in Oregon, Nebraska, Louisiana, Washington, California, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Wisconsin, New York and Washington DC. Will Be Designated Driver Inc., is working with those states to get chapter launched. This involves learning insurance requirements in each state, securing vehicles, determining licencing requirements for the chapter and for drivers, establishing chapter personnel, hiring drivers and working with chapters to get the funding necessary to sustain the organization.
What type of operating environment and internal organizational factors make your innovation successful?
Although the national headquarters will be located in Maryland, support, both hands-on, online and via telephone will be available to all chapters throughout the country, and eventually the world. Headquarters staff will be dispatched to chapters to provide assistance with fund-raising, non-profit organization training, driver education and any other resource they find necessary. Chapters will be encouraged to work together in order to coordinate benefits and provide the service to as many consumers as possible, and to develop an atmosphere of “family” in order to provide the best service possible to the communities we serve.
Please elaborate on any needs or offers you have mentioned above and/or suggest categories of support that aren't specified within the list
Although Will Be Designated Driver, Inc. has received extremely positive responses from the public and from local establishments, funding is not coming through as expected. In some cases, funding is difficult because the program is not up and running, and cannot become operational until funding is in place due to capital expenditures and insurance requirements.
 | 66 weeks ago Terry Rogers updated this Competition Entry. |
| 66 weeks ago Terry Rogers submitted this idea. |
